Steve Cropley
MY WEEK IN CARS
Meeting new Bloodhound benefactor
MONDAY
To Bedford Autodrome to watch our own Matt Prior and circuit owner and ex-formula 1 driver Jonathan Palmer endlessly flat out on the East Circuit, refining the special, high-torque, paddleshift, 2.5-litre version of the Caterham Seven (I’m calling it JPE2) that Palmersport has developed for this year’s driving day season. This was mainly a day of skiving away from the office for me – the others did all the lappery – but it was fascinating to see times fall and the car’s balance improve as the tyres, roll stiffness, damper settings and ride height all changed. I’m always impressed by JP and his determination to ensure the customers get driving value for money. No one else is so conscientious and, as you can read on p54, the JPE2 is now one helluva car. Amazing to think its roots go back 60 years.
TUESDAY
A new book from colleague and classic car expert Giles Chapman is always a moment, but when ‘Mini: 60 Years’ dropped onto my desk, I was still moved to ring him and ask why the world needed another Mini book. There are several. His answer was intriguing: “I decided to write a 35,000-word yarn that brings the stories of the original and new Mini together – so one side will understand the other.” About 35% of the text is about the post-2000 Mini, apparently, and Giles says it’s an intriguing who-did-what tale. I know this but dimly, and would trust Giles to get the story straight. So I’ll be forking out the thoroughly reasonable £25.
THURSDAY AM
Fantastic to meet Ian Warhurst, the Yorkshirebased engineer-entrepreneur who bought the Bloodhound land speed record car at the turn of the year. He turns out to be friendly, modest, ambitious and a car enthusiast – all the desirable qualities. What’s more, he yesterday announced plans to chase a new land speed record in South Africa. It’s an amazingly positive outcome, given that the car was saved from the oxy-cutters by a single day. The brilliant and ambitious team now has headquarters in a university technical college at Berkeley, near Gloucester, a superb achievement given that this project is about encouraging young people to embrace technology. More strength to their collective arm!
THURSDAY PM
Three hundred fascinating miles in a Ford Focus St-line X manual, powered by the benign but strong 180bhp version of Ford’s 1.5-litre petrol turbo triple. Two impressions linger: first, how the Focus has grown; second, what a powerful case this car makes for manual six-speed gearboxes.
Ford’s tradition has always been to increase the size of its models as the generations roll but, given the size of this latest car and the limitations the proportions put on visibility, I can’t help feel this policy needs changing. Lighter and smaller (but brilliantly packaged) is surely the modern way. On the gearchange: this Focus is one of the sweetest shifters I’ve tried. It delivers seamless, silent, vibe-free gearchanges through careful balancing of all the many things that matter – clutch stroke, effort and bite, gear ratios, throttle response, rev drop when off throttle and gearlever throw, effort and position. They’re all brilliant. One reason I’ve tended to prefer small-engined automatics in recent years is for their refinement. This gearbox poses a fine argument in the other direction.
FRIDAY
The latest crop of mid-sized hatches – Golf, Focus, Astra and friends – are all artfully styled to affect coupé-like lines even though they’re all five-doors, because it’s no longer economic to make separate three-doors. It’s a trend I miss. Can’t help thinking three-doors will be classics tomorrow. My favourite is the last-generation Astra GTC, which is just exceptional.
Bloodhound was saved from the oxy-cutters by just a day